Nikhil Chaudhary
VP of Marketing, BeatRoute
Nikhil leads marketing at BeatRoute and hosts The BeatRoute Podcast.
View profileRoute Optimization Software for Field Sales Teams in Nigeria and Kenya
Route optimization software is the tool that plans which outlets each sales rep or van visits, how often and in what order. BeatRoute builds those beats for dukas, kiosks, provision stores and wholesalers in Nigeria and Kenya, and puts each day's route on the rep's phone.
Trusted by AAVA Brands in Nigeria and brands worldwide
- users
- 100,000+
- countries
- 20+
- retailers reached
- 2M+
Route optimization for sales teams vs delivery fleets
BeatRoute suits brands whose reps, merchandisers or vans visit the same outlets on a cycle. A courier or delivery fleet sending vehicles to new addresses every day will be better served by fleet routing software.
| Delivery routing | Sales route planning in Nigeria and Kenya | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the stops come from | Today's orders, each to a new address | Your outlet list: dukas, kiosks, provision stores, market stalls and wholesalers |
| How often a stop is seen | Once, when the parcel is due | On a cycle set by outlet value: weekly for a big wholesaler, monthly for a small kiosk |
| What closes the window | Delivery time windows | Shop hours and market days |
| What the rep brings back | Proof of delivery | Orders, cash collected and, for a van crew, the stock left on board |
Judge sales route optimization software by the hours a beat takes
A beat that looks short on the map can run past closing time once market days, shop hours and time at each counter are counted. A beat nobody can finish in a day is where skipped outlets start, so judge how a tool builds the beat before how it orders today's stops.
Build beats a rep can finish
Start from your real outlet list, not a sample.
What to check
- Visit frequency set by outlet class
- Market days, shop hours and visit length built into the beat
- No rep given a beat twice as long as the next rep's
- Each rep's start point set, from home or the distributor's depot
- A new kiosk added to the nearest beat that has room
Order the day's stops
On a short day the smallest outlets should drop first, and every must-visit outlet should stay on the route.
What to check
- Optimized routes that cut travel time, so a motorbike rep or a van crosses town only once and fuel costs fall
- Appointments and shop opening hours respected in the order
- Shops whose sales are falling, or who owe you money, moved up the day's list
Move missed outlets before they wait a full cycle
Re-plan the day when a rep is off or a market is closed: their outlets should move to another day or rep.
What to check
- An absent rep's outlets handed to another rep or another day
- Each rep's planned dukas and kiosks against the ones actually visited, by territory
- The manager hears the same day when an outlet is skipped or a visit runs late
Results from a BeatRoute rollout in Nigeria
From AAVA Brands' full BeatRoute SFA and DMS rollout in Nigeria, route planning included.
★★★★★
“BeatRoute provides powerful tools for tracking sales performance, route adherence, and merchandising execution…”
★★★★★
“It is well tailored towards helping the sales team make visits effective…”
★★★★★
“The UI/UX design makes the app easy and enjoyable to use, which makes training the sales team on usage a straight forward process.”
★★★★★
“The responses to our queries are swift and timely.”
Pilot it on two of your routes
- Pick one busy route in Lagos or Nairobi and one long upcountry route, and export their outlets with location, class and shop hours.
- Keep your current plan as the baseline and run the new beats for two or three cycles.
- Ask for a live re-plan: a rep off sick, a market closed for the day and ten new kiosks.
- Compare outlets covered, visits per rep per day, time on the road and productive calls.
Agree up front who keeps the outlet list geotagged, classed and clean. A stale list sinks more pilots than the software does.
Starts from the outlet list you already have
Outlet list sync
New dukas and kiosks come in from your ERP or DMS, so no beat is drawn from an old outlet list.
Beat plans to other systems
Teams still planning in Excel get the beat plan as a sheet; other systems take it through the API or a dashboard.
New outlets approved
A kiosk a rep adds in the field can start an approval in your other systems.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is BeatRoute a beat plan app?
Yes. Each rep's beat opens in the BeatRoute Field Sales App on Android and iOS, with the day's outlets in order. It works without signal in open markets and upcountry, and syncs later. Moving off a WhatsApp beat list? Start with the guide on how to build a beat plan.
Can distributor salesmen work on the same beat plan as our own reps?
Yes. A distributor's salesmen and van sales crews work in the same app as your reps, so one territory can be planned as one set of beats. You see who covered which outlet, whoever pays their salary.
How much does route optimization software cost?
BeatRoute is subscription software, priced per user and module on annual contracts, with no free trial. The cost grows with the number of reps and the modules you use. See how pricing works.
When is an Excel sheet or a WhatsApp plan enough?
With a handful of reps, a few hundred outlets and routes that rarely change, a WhatsApp group and a shared sheet will do. It breaks when new kiosks are added every week, reps are often off, or you need proof that each visit happened.
Written by people who work with field teams
Updated
Kanika Agrawal
Content Strategist, BeatRoute
Kanika writes guides from customer rollouts.
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